Baring the Thorn (The Mountain Tribe #3)

Chapter 29

Thorn

I receive a long round of questioning from my remaining hunters, and further anger, which leaves me exhausted no matter how much I may be due it.

I sense their withdrawal, their betrayal, and it is only manageable because I have faced Samara’s, and it felt far worse. I weathered that storm, and realized that the path forward demands the truth, even if it is painful to face.

My hunters, though as furious as the females, are more understanding about my desire to hide my past, yet less forgiving of the lie.

While the females had been furious that I made decisions for them and decided what should be kept secret, my men are more reluctant to seek out a tribe that they know hurt me. They can understand the hesitation, but their distrust wounds me.

I answer all their questions, facing their outbursts of frustration, swallowing the guilt that tosses in my stomach like bile, that I have caused anyone unhappiness.

After a while, there is little left to be said, and Falcon finally voices the question that I know must be on all their minds, “How many females are in the other tribe?”

This is…difficult to answer, yet I try my best.

“I do not know,” I admit. “I left the tribe as a boy, so it is impossible to say after nearly twenty winters. Some may have died, and others born who are now in adulthood. When I lived amongst them, there were only three of similar age to me. Their healer, who is deceased, Juniper. Their current leader’s sister…Heather, I think her name was. And Aspen. There would have been the female infant, but she was murdered by my father.”

The hunters nod to themselves, and the message is clear.

There were few females anywhere, and they are still lucky to have found the bunker of females that live amongst us now.

More than that, I think most of my men have staked a claim on a female already, in their mind’s perhaps, in the same way that I was drawn to Samara and her to me.

“So, it would not have mattered.” Storm looks thoughtful. “Any females they had would have found a male already. There is no use in seeking them out.”

Falcon snorts, “However, if our females go north, we may lose some.”

That idea is uncomfortable, and I struggle to keep my tone low, so I do not alert the females, still fuming nearby.

“You must go with them. Hawk did not endanger Samara but that does not mean that I trust him. We must not allow anyone to seek out the northern tribe alone.”

The hunters seem to be in agreement on this, even if they do not agree with me at this moment.

They retire to their tents, and I am left alone by the fire, contemplating the varied reactions. My hunters are quiet, sullen men, they do not shout or storm off as the females do, yet their emotions are clear on their faces. I am very far from being forgiven, even if they begrudgingly understand why I did it.

So deep am I in my thoughts that when I feel a strong hand come down on my shoulder, I startle.

It is River, who’s grim expression betrays his friendly gesture, and he joins me on the log that I sit on.

“I do not think I have ever seen my Grace so angry,” he says, though the corners of his mouth twitch with a contained smirk. “I have left her alone to pace into the ground of the tent. But I think that you may do well to avoid her.”

“Does she want to go north?” I ask, unable to stop myself.

River folds his legs out ahead of him with a groan, and I suspect that the hunt today was a long, tiring one. “She may not speak to you for many days, brother, but I do not think she is angry enough to join another tribe. She knows that my home is here, that hers is too. The females will take long, but they will forgive you. And we will, too.”

His words calm some of my worry, but I know that River and I are the closest out of the hunters, and that he might not speak for all of them.

Still, closeness aside, I am shocked that he has joined me at the fire, so I venture to ask, “What about just you?”

I watch him suck in a breath and release it, and I think that he looks the same he always does, the same he did when we were boys, yet he is also completely new.

“I cannot hold anger inside of me. I never could for very long. I want us to move forwards, only, and never keep anything from the tribe.”

I cannot help but raise a brow. “When did you get so reasonable?”

River may not have been as angry as the brothers Falcon and Raven, or as stubborn as me, but he is not without darker emotions. We have gotten into some disagreements throughout our lives together, some even coming to blows, of which River often won with his quick movements and sly thinking.

He shrugs, but a smile spreads across his face. He looks happy, always happy, these days, and it makes me feel that maybe I was not meant to be his leader, that maybe he never needed one. What he needed, what I needed too, was simply to have hope, a future, in a female that sees us for who we truly are.

“Perhaps it was when I found Grace. I am very forgiving now that I have a beautiful female in my furs each night.”

I cannot help but chuckle with him, stealing a glance over my shoulder to ensure that his fuming female is not directly behind us now.

“Do you… think you would have done the same thing? If you had been me?”

“It is hard to say,” River shrugs. “I have made mistakes, and I have kept a piece of myself hidden from the tribe, a piece that only Grace could expose. I am sure you know what I mean.” I do. I know exactly what he means with a hard tug in my chest, my awareness drifting across the camp to where Samara is. “I think that you did what you thought would protect the tribe, which is all we could have expected from you. If anything, I am merely hurt that… you did not tell me. It was just us for months, and we have always been as brothers- real brothers.”

I am startled to find that my eyes sting with his confession, and I focus my gaze on the fire as I blink away the discomfort. It is hard to look at him now, with the truth of his words, knowing that I let him down.

“You are right,” I say after some time. “If I had told you, what would you have said?”

River appears thoughtful. “I would have told you what I am telling you now. That you made a mistake, and that you are a man, the same as us, before you are a leader. Men make mistakes. You did the right thing by telling us, even if it is late. I would tell you, that it will take time for your people to forgive you, but you will not lose us. Not just because of the females, and because of the healers we have here, but because they trust you to look after them.”

I nod, still stunned by the maturity of my tribe mate.

We were as brothers, and it was only us for a while before we found Falcon and then Raven, and the others.

I have always looked to River as a younger brother, however, as someone to look out for and gently guide, and it is humbling for him to remind me of my faults. Yet he reminds me of my duties, too, and of my place in this tribe.

I can only hope that he is right.

Samara

When I stoop to come into our tent, I find Cass sitting rigidly on her furs, furiously sharpening the arrows for her bow. Despite her and Brenna leaving together, she’s alone now and I’m certain that it’s because Cass, when she’s angry, can clear a room faster than anyone else I know.

I sit on the thin layer of furs where my pile used to be, most of them still packed away from the trip, and a strange feeling settles in my belly.

I have that sense again that everything has changed, that I’m a different person. It was only a few weeks ago that I slept and sat here, across from Cass, and thought that this life was the worst I could imagine, that there was no fate unluckier and more miserable then ending up two hundred and fifty years into the future.

I used to lie in this spot, in the early morning, and pretend that I was back home, and any notion of pods or stasis or tribes would have been laughable. Now it’s like that life happened to someone else, or like my job and friends in Toronto had been part of my childhood instead, the memories murky and faded with age.

Instead of my ritual of avoidance, I had woken up this morning, near the crest of the mountains, with Thorn’s warm strength surrounding me, his masculine smell, and his lips fitting perfectly along the curve of my neck.

I had felt like I had a home here, for the first time.

And, when he’d woken and had thrust into me with the tender intensity of a man knowing what our return to camp might bring, as if he could outrun conflict with each moan that pressed from my lips and each slant of his mouth over mine. Excellent morning sex definitely helped rid me of my old habit of avoidance, if nothing else. But I had thought, looking up at him in bliss, that I was rather lucky to be in that pod, in that bunker, and in this time.

As if Cassandra can sense the mushy direction of my thoughts, she suddenly flings a strip of fabric at me that she uses to clean her tools. It slaps against my forehead, shaking me from the memory.

“I fucking told you not to hook up with him!” She vents.

I shake my head. “No, you told me not to come back pregnant. And I’m due for my period soon.”

“Well, if you’re fucking him anywhere near as much as Leah or Grace bang it out with their men, then it’s only a matter of time,” she mutters this under her breath, and I have to smother a grin into my shoulder.

Poor Cass. I think we’ll be just as insufferable as the other couples are, at least once Thorn can walk through the tribe without being told off.

I wait for the next thunderous bout of frustration, knowing that it’s only a matter of time, and sure enough, Cass scrapes away at her arrows for only one minute longer before spitting, “So - just so I have the timeline right - you guys are out looking for the cache. You find where it should be, but it’s missing. You figure out Thorn’s lying about these people being the last ones. You hate his guts. But then you brawl with a bear and all is forgiven?”

I release a long sigh. “If it could possibly be summed up, yes. That’s the timeline. But Cass he… took down a bear for me. As far as apologies go, I think that’s a pretty solid one.”

She rolls her eyes. “As far as lies go, I think his merits fighting a whole army of bears.” She grounds out a sound of pure anger, like a growl, “You know what pisses me off the most is that we all knew it was bullshit. We knew there was no way in hell that these guys were the last people on the face of the earth, but Thorn knows best, and Thorn says they are, so Thorn must be telling the truth. Well, I didn’t fucking vote for him!”

At that, a surprised laugh bursts out of me. “You’re right. Maybe we need to install a democracy.”

The anger lifts from Cass’ expression, only slightly, at the idea. “It’s not a bad idea. I vote for you or Grace.”

“I vote for you or Grace,” I laugh.

Not that the other women aren’t leaders in their own right, but Grace was the first one here, and the one who saved all of us when we were dying in the woods, so in a way she’s been a leader for us all along. She showed me how to stitch leathers together for clothes, and her and River are building the first hut so that we can all leave the tents in the Stone Age.

Cass would have my vote simply because of her ability to live off the land, her skills in hunting and tracking and camping. She may have struggled with everything else in this time, but that always came naturally.

“How would Thorn handle the title being taken away from him?” She muses, and I can tell that the idea of his discomfort pleases her.

If it does come to a vote, I have to find a delicate way to talk Cass out of voting for me. Healer is exhausting enough without leading on top of it.

“Things will settle down,” I promise her. “Anger towards Thorn is to be expected, but he didn’t do it out of cruelty. He did it to protect his people. Eventually the other men will forgive him. It took me some time, but I was able to.”

Cass rolls her eyes. “Excuse the fuck out of me if it takes me a little longer. You’ve had a crush on him since the jump, Sam, so you would be more forgiving… That’s what really hurts - that you’re not my ally anymore.”

With a shock, I reach out and take her hands in mine. “What the hell are you talking about? Of course I’m still your ally! You’re my best friend here.”

She glares at me. “No way! You’re allies with Thorn now. You even sat with him while he told everyone. I bet you’ll be all ‘you guys are so hard on him, you have to let the past go, Cass don’t beat up my new boyfriend’!”

I gasp. “I will not sound like that. Everyone is entitled to their anger, I just dealt with mine weeks ago. I shouldn’t have to point out to you that I can have a ‘boyfriend’ and friends or are we still teenagers.”

“Fuck off! You know what I mean!” She shoves me in the shoulder, hard, and I tumble back onto the furs with a laugh. “You’re Team Thorn!”

“There are no teams,” I say from my back, blinking up at the stitched roof of our tent. “Everything is different, Cass. Everything changed on the trip. He can be a fucking tyrant but… I love him. And I think that we make each other better.”

“Yuck,” she grumbles, but her anger seems to be softened.

I hope that she sees that, regardless of her feelings towards him, Thorn makes me happy, and I calm down his bristly disposition. We do make each other better. It’s what makes me so sure that he would never lie to me, or to the tribe, ever again.

I pull myself back up to face her. “That said, I will be bringing my furs to his tent tonight.”

But now Cass is smiling, her anger soothed, at least towards me.

She gives me a little shove on the butt as I stand to leave the tent, and her laughter smothers any genuine frustration in her words, “Go, then. Fucking traitor. But you’ve lost my vote!”

I laugh all the way back to Thorn’s tent.